Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.
-D. H. Lawrence
Chapter 2-Love taught me to lie
Rory's cell rang before they even finished loading the boxes. "Figures," Jess muttered. Rory hit him playfully in response as she answered.
"Hey mom."
"Are you out of your mind?" Lorelai shrieked.
"If I am I got it from you." Rory giggled nervously.
"Not funny! What's going on?"
"Jess and I are going away for a little while."
"Where?" Lorelai demanded.
"We don't know yet…"
"Okay, so that'd be a check in the 'Yes! I am out of my mind' box." Lorelai fumed, pacing the floor of Luke's apartment. "Why would you go away with him?"
"It's just something I need to do," She stated quietly.
"Rory! You got the Jess fling out of your system, remember? You dumped Dean for him and he left and you were fine without him."
"I was not!" She shouted.
"You were Rory, I know you, I raised you. You were off beat for five minutes after he left and then you graduated and we went to Europe and you were happy, you were-"
"Stop telling me how I feel!" She hissed. "I told him I wouldn't pine for him." Jess gave her a confused look.
"How could you tell him?"
"I-" Rory clasped her hand over the boy's mouth to keep him from saying more.
"He went to California, you went to Europe-"
"He called," Rory blurted out as Jess released her hand from his face.
"No, he didn't, I checked, I checked messages, I changed our number, I made sure he didn't-"
"He called me at graduation," She admitted. "I told him everything."
Lorelai looked nervously at Luke who frowned farther. "Let me talk to her, I'll kill him."
"No," The brunette mouthed and he sighed.
"I told him I wouldn't pine, and I didn't. Not the way you're supposed to."
"Then you didn't really loved him. You loved Dean, you pined-"
"I shed a few tears, ate some Ben and Jerry's, and watched a couple movies for us that's Friday night." Rory defended.
"Rory, you can't love him, not like this, he hurts you and he leaves and he comes back worms his way in and does it all over again."
"At least I'm open with my feelings."
"What?" Lorelai asked horror struck, looking anxiously at Luke.
"Please, you and Luke? You've been up that alley for years."
"I don't know what you're talking about," She denied.
"Like you said, I know you, you raised me," Rory shot back. "You've been in love with him since he bought your basket and maybe even before that when he made the hup-"
"I was with Max," She interrupted.
"Hey, being with Dean didn't stop me! There's another reason you called off that wedding."
"Rory!"
"Jess made a mistake; I think you know something about second chances." She hung up.
"Uh!" Lorelai screeched looking down at her phone.
"What?" Luke questioned with unusual interest.
"She hung up on me."
"Where is she going?"
"I don't know…she hung up on me."
"Huh, hold on." Luke picked up the diner phone and dialed Rory's phone.
"Hello?" Rory muttered.
"Hi."
She smiled. "Oh, hey Luke, I thought you were my mom."
"Oh no, I just need to talk to Jess and I know he's with you, can I talk to him please?" Rory looked at the Jess nervously.
"What?" The brown eyed man asked as he ran a hand through his unruly hair.
"Um, promise you won't put my mom on?" Luke's breath caught as he sent at tortured glance at Lorelai.
"I…yeah, I do." He lied, knowing that if Lorelai asked, the phone was hers.
"Alright," She said hesitantly. "I'm putting him on now." She passed the phone to him and he frowned at the guilty expression on her face.
"Hi," Jess said, the words leaving his mouth tentatively, he wanted to prove his new leaf of life to Rory.
"Hey, where are you going?"
So much for that, he couldn't force more then monotone language out of his mouth. "Um, I dunno."
"That's it, no idea?" Luke said rubbing his forehead with his free hand.
"I need to go to New York to pick up some stuff." He answered.
"And then?"
"We buy a map and randomly point some place out." He barked sarcastically and Rory frowned.
"God Jess, you read the book didn't you?"
"Nah, too many big words, love, trust, honesty…" Noticing Rory was looking additionally uneasy. "Yeah, I did." He attempted to redeem himself.
"Jess, planning, it says plans all over it."
"But I was never good at planning."
"Yeah, you were you had a great plan for getting her away from Dean, outbidding him for the baskets, bringing her food when Lorelai went away, and using Shane-"
"I did not-"
"Yeah, you did."
"I'll try that planning thing."
"Jess, this isn't fair to her."
"Here we go."
"I know you want to be with her but you had your chance and you blew it."
"Luke, I love her, you know what it's like to be in love."
Luke looked at Lorelai and blushed faintly, "Yeah, I do."
"Listen, I promise I'll call you when I get out of the city. Tell you where I'm going."
"Alright, be careful and I if you hurt that girl again-"
"Right."
"Bye."
"Bye."
"Why did you hang up?" Lorelai demanded.
"You can't fight that," He muttered.
"Yes, you can, his name is Jess and I will fight him until the day he dies."
"I take it you'll be standing there with a knife that daytoo."
"No," Lorelai said innocently. "A machine gun. If I use a knife he can get away."
- - - - - - - -
"This is your apartment," Rory wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Not anymore," He picked up a book and stuck it in his back pocket.
"It's unsanitary."
"Its better then the last place," He moved towards the kitchen/bathroom and took a few trash bags out of a cabinet.
"How do you even fit all your books here?"
"I don't Liz has most of them at her place." He scooped up some clothes form the floor and shoved them in one of the bags.
"Oh." She looked around, seeing the other bed and a very grubby looking body lying there. "Who is that?" She asked as Jess bent down to pick up more clothes."
"I think its Carl, might be Landon though."
"Does he date a Jamie?" Rory asked playfully.
"Nah, not a Nicholas Sparks kind of person at all," He moved on to his books, smaller stacks then at Luke's but still impressive for someone in his situation.
"Wait, that one's from the library." Rory pulled a thick brown book from his grasp.
"Well, I don't think they chase library policy offenders once out of state but I could be wrong." He smirked as he took it back and added more books to the bag.
"Nope, only Kirk does that."
"Alright, I think I'm done." He tied the bag and picked it and the clothes bag up.
"Alright then, let's go buy a map then." Rory lit up.
"You do know I wasn't serious about that." He rolled his eyes.
"Yeah," she opened the door. "You just made it sound so fun, what with the sarcasm and the bitterness."
"You really wanna play the poke the map game?"
"Yep."
- - - - - - - -
"Lorelai, I don't know if we should open the inn this weekend." Sookie acknowledged.
"What?" Her friend became wide-eyed.
"I tried to talk her out of it," Jackson explained. "But she won't listen to me."
"It's just you've waited so long for it, I want you to be able to really enjoy it." Sookie sighed. "I'm sorry."
"Hun, the inn is the only thing keeping me from running after Jess Mariano with a giant dagger."
"What happened to the machine gun?" She glared at Luke.
"I decided watching him suffer would be more fun." Lorelai smirked.
"I don't want to upset you, I just think it's for the best."
"Sookie, we spent money on next week, we invited Taylor, if we don't put this together for the rest of our lives it will be, 'Well, I think the historical society needs rights to the inn' or 'the inn is buried on an ancient Indian burial ground, who votes to tear it down?' It's business suicide."
"I know but maybe-"
"No, we are opening the inn next week and that's final." She turned her heel, picking up her coffee, and was out the door.
"I deserve that dagger, don't I?" Sookie cried.
"No," Jackson assured. "You were just trying to help.
- - - - - - - -
"Do you have any maps of the USA?" Jess asked the magazine stand worker.
"The USA?" Rory pouted.
"Well, I'm sorry; I'm not quite swimming with money for international travel."
"Fine," She shrugged. "I'll just aim for Hawaii."
"I've got these," the magazine man help up three brochure type maps.
"I want…" Rory closed her eyes and stuck her finger toward the left, "that one."
"That'll be $9. 64." The man held out his hand.
"Do you take Visa?"
"No, only Debit," He shook his head.
"Here," She gave him a ten. "Keep the spare."
"I was going to-" Jess began.
"Ssh!" She ordered opening the map and closing your eyes. "We're going to Hawaii." He rolled his eyes and she stuck her finger out, landing in the northeastern part of the map.
"Hawaii?" She opened her lids hopefully.
"Nope."
"Maine?" She groaned.
"Yeah, Eastport." He looked at the little dot all the way at the top. "Never heard of it."
"Me neither." She said ecstatically. "It's really close to Canada, maybe you'll get lost and end up there."
"Don't count on it." He laughed lightly.
"Oh, I will." She reassured him as she skipped back to the car in a six year old fashion.
"I knew we shouldn't have stopped at that candy store." He muttered under his breath.
AN: Sorry the update took so long and i know it's short but more to follow, yay! Thank you all fro the nice reviews.